Gil Green
Biography
Gil Green was One of twelve Communists sentenced under Dennis v. United States.
Gil Green, a leader of the communist Workers' Party, along with eleven other party leaders were found guilty for advocating the violent overthrow of the United States. None of the defendants ever directly advocated to overthrow the government, but the prosecutor claimed that by supporting an ideology that advocated for violence, they also did by extension. The defendants claimed that their First Amendment freedom of speech rights were violated and they served no "clear and present danger to the nation".
They were found guilty and each sentenced to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court who affirmed the lower court's verdict.
CPUSA Illinois/NY chairman; National Board. Foley Square Eleven defendant; jumped bail July 1951; surrendered February 27, 1956 in NYC; +3 years for bail jumping; released July 29, 1961.
The April 9 convention report identifies Green as national secretary of the Young Communist League and chair of the session on youth work. The session focused on organizing young workers in factories and unions and overcoming racial exclusion. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n085-apr-09-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5
As Young Communist League secretary in April 1935, Green urged systematic organizing among working youth in steel, mining, auto, rubber and textiles, youth participation in trade-union leadership, lower initiation fees in underpaid trades, and support for the American Youth Congress. His anniversary article reported League membership of 8,000 compared with Party membership of 30,000 and opposed army control and militarization of CCC camps. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n095-NAT-apr-20-1935-DW-Q.pdf#page=4
Contemporary bond-forfeiture chronology
The August 9, 1951 Gorman Progress, page 4, reproduced an FBI wanted notice identifying Gilbert Green, Chicago District 8 Communist Party chairman, born September 24, 1906 in Chicago. It reports that bonds of the convicted Smith Act leaders were forfeited in federal district court in New York City on July 2, 1951, leaving Green a fugitive at the time. Bond forfeiture is not physical jail entry and does not replace the later February 1956 surrender/admission already recorded here. This is a historical wanted notice, not a statement about present status; later custody and release dates remain unchanged.
The Gorman Progress, August 9, 1951, page 4, contemporary FBI notice reproduced by the newspaper.
The study identifies the name variants Gilbert Green; Gilbert Greenberg.
Tuomas Savonen, Minnesota, Moscow, Manhattan, 2020, PDF pages 163, 164.
